I was looking at a nasty free (pirate?) video streaming website for a potential StopTheMadness Pro customer. You know the kind of site that opens a new browser tab with an advertisement every time you click on something? The things I do for a sale! Anyway, my verdict was that while StopTheMadness Pro could help with some annoyances on the site, the situation was hopeless overall. There are some problems that even I can't solve. Still, my investigation was somewhat productive, because one of the advertisements was interesting, caught my attention.
Apple Security Alert
iOS in [sic] now 89% corrupted
Further damage to the system could result in device lockup and loss of all data. To prevent further damage to your system, install an antivirus app from the App Store, open it and run the cleaning procedure
Needless to say, the alert is not from Apple, and the domain apple-protect.com is not owned by Apple Inc.
I was naturally wary of clicking the "Remove viruses" button, but I found in the JavaScript debugger that the button simply opens a URL in the iOS App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/virus-protection-for-phone/id6736693162
The app in question is Virus Protection for Phone, which claims to be "Trusted by millions of users worldwide". I don't know whether that's true, but for what it's worth, the app is currently ranked #88 in the free utilities category of the United States App Store. According to AppFigures, Virus Protection for iPhone is currently the #43 top grossing utility in the US App Store. Not bad for a "free" app, eh? That's certainly better than my paid app StopTheMadness Pro, also in the utilities category. As you might expect (of scam apps), Virus Protection for Phone has a number of expensive subscription options.
Don't count me among the supposed millions who trust Virus Protection for Phone. I'm skeptical just based on the name. Given that iOS App Store apps are strictly sandboxed, forbidden from accessing the rest of the system, a virus protection app for iPhone doesn't seem possible. Specifically, the app claims (ungrammatically) that it can "Scan Device to Remove Virus and Resolve Issues", which seems to me to be—what's the term I'm thinking of?—a bald-faced lie.
Ironically, the app also claims to have "Ads Protection":
A comprehensive system that allows you to protect your device in just a few clicks, making your internet surfing experience cleaner and faster. It helps protect your data and passwords from theft, and it also blocks phishing links, spam, and intrusive ads.
So can I assume that it would protect against the very web ad that led me to this app?
Virus Protection for Phone is currently at version 1.8 and has been in the App Store for five months. During that time, updates to the app have, let's see, fixed minor bugs and improved the server.
The developer of Virus Protection for Phone is Virtual Advisors Limited. Have you heard of them? Me neither. Fortunately, the government of the UK appears to be keeping tabs on Virtual Advisors Limited. Oddly, the UK states that the company is to be dissolved and struck off the registry on April 29, 2025, six days from now. I'll have to check back on the App Store listing then.
The director of Virtual Advisors Limited is John Zimbe Kiwanuka, age 38, of Swedish nationality but English residence. Kiwanuka appears to be quite the entrepreneur, also involved with Superior Growth Partners Limited, Elevate Point Consulting Limited, Brum Consulting Limited, and East African Homes Limited, all in the past three years! Coincidentally, johnykiwa88@outlook.com is the support email address of Virus Protection for Phone.
The App Store ratings and reviews of Virus Protection for Phone are, shall we say, mixed? The ratings are mostly either 5 or 1, with few in between.
The most critical, 1-star reviews warn of a scam: "A lot of these reviews are fake. Don't trust them. Horrible app and should be reported".
On the other hand, the most favorable, 5-star reviews claim that the app is the "Best one of them all", a high compliment to say the least!
One user who literally loves the app raves about, well, the automatically renewing subscription, which is a bit of an odd thing to rave about, as well as the absence of hidden fees, which I didn't know was a thing in the App Store, but I guess you learn something new every day! The expression of feeling in the review seems so sincere and enthusiastic, it assuredly couldn't be one of those fake reviews we were warned about.
I'll let you judge for yourself the honesty of the developer and the reviews. My own personal estimation is that they're, um, 89% corrupted, just to alert you.
Today the European Commission fined Apple €500 million for placing unnecessary restrictions on developers attempting to distribute their apps outside the iOS App Store. I didn't set out to write a blog post today after reading that news; indeed, I feel that almost everything that could be said about iOS lockdown has already been said, sometimes by me, and all of the arguments have been repeated ad nauseam over the years. I was simply responding to a support email about my own app. Yet the direct line to the App Store from the misleading web advertisement I encountered was too blatant and too apposite to ignore. Apple claims that locking down iOS to the App Store is justified in order to protect consumers from danger. Time and again, however, it's painfully obvious that Apple's so-called "curation" of the App Store is terrible, miserable, incompetent, negligent. I've seen no evidence that an app like Virus Protection for Phone is the exception, one that fell through the cracks. Rather, it seems to be the norm in the crApp Store. Usually the scams are so obvious that any competent person could spot them easily… except, somehow, Apple's own App Store employees, the very people supposedly enjoined to protect us.